Magus Xion unsheathed the blade that rested on his hip and stood with his battle stance, ready to attack.
Meanwhile, Emery could only stare at his master with a mix of bewilderment and nervousness. Magus Xion was someone he trusted with his life. There was no way he would accept that the magus would hurt him.
However, since the first day he met the magus, Emery had seen firsthand Magus Xion's devotion towards the grand magus Zenoia.
While he was lost in his thoughts, Magus Xion let out a battle cry and pierced the sword to the ground. Wisps of energy rose from the ground and gathered around the blade, creating a massive wave of energy that almost pushed Emery down.
The magus instantly dashed forward. Unlike what the dragon said, his master did not attack him, instead he jumped up to the air and raised his blade towards the direction of the dragon.
"Master, stop!" Emery shouted.
"Hahaha! Stupid human!" Kilgragah roared.
Kilgragah opened its maw, showing a massive jaw full of sharp teeth. A ball of black energy gathered within. The energy was sizzling with jolts of electricity, before it shot towards the incoming Magus so quickly it became almost invisible.
[Gravity Maelstrom]
The Magus' weapon, along with the ball of energy, were about to collide, but just as they were about to touch, Magus Xion sheathed his sword with a flick of his arm, leaving his open body to fully accept the spell.
Shocked, Emery could only scream. "Master!"
Kabbooommm!!!
The ball of black electricity hit Magus Xion dead on; a thunderous explosion threw the magus back to where he previously stood. He fell kneeling to the ground screaming in pain. The magus gritted his teeth, fumbled in his pouch, taking out an item shaped like a tiny needle made of something white like teeth. He stabbed the needle in, making the needle disappear right as he stopped writhing.
Magus Xion stood up on shaky legs, as he spat out a mouthful of blood, while half of his body was blackened and electrified thanks to the attack. In contrast to Emery's panic, however, Killgragah merely laughed and said.
"Hahaha! Humans and all their tricks."
Emery quickly approached, trying to help out his master, but his master held out his arm and stopped him. The magus stood and bowed deeply to the dragon.
"I have decided… Lord Killgragah, please, I hope you could further guide him".
"Of course, that goes without your orders, human."
"Thank you." Once again the magus bow in respect to the dragon
Before Emery could ask what was going on, Magus Xion looked at him and told him to follow him out from the Khaos Space.
Magus Xion stepped out of the Khaos Space, half walking half limping in pain. He then approached a large, flat stone and sat on it. His shoulders and half his body were all wounded and he struggled to catch his breath as he cast a healing spell. Dark liquid slowly covered his wounds and they began to knit together.
Emery stood patiently beside his master, trying to grasp what had just happened.
After a few minutes, the magus opened his eyes and said without giving Emery a chance to ask.
"Emery, do you remember when we first met?"
"Yes, Master."
Of course Emery still remembered his first week in the Magus Academy. It was so magical he was sure he would never forget it.
As for the specific time the magus asked was when he was brought by Chumo to train in the Darkness Institute to use the origin stone room, only for him to meet Magus Xion, who stopped him as the room was used by the grand magus Zenoia at that time.
"Emery, what I am going to tell you is a secret. You can't tell even your closest friend. Can you do that for me?" Magus Xion said with a serious expression.
Realizing what the expression meant, Emery nodded solemnly.
"Yes, Master."
"My master Zenoia… She was inside the room not just because of training, she was actually healing her wounds from a fight."
As Emery heard the next words his master mentioned, he instantly realized the connection.
"Elder's Respite, the Magus Academy's Institute for Plant Elements… She was fighting against an elf there the night before"
The place's name, the night before and the mention of an elf made Emery instantly realize his master was talking about the mysterious elf attack at the night when he was gathering plants. In that attack, many of the people he went with were killed, but he met a dark wisp that saved his life.
That was his first encounter with Killgragah and the Khaos.
"Emery, I know you were there that fateful night… The Magus Academy's investigation merely found it as a trouble caused by the elf, but you need to know, the elf was there to meet my Grand Master and to hand over the Khaos to her. Unfortunately, that night, things went south."
Magus Xion took a deep breath and said.
"Even now, the academy has no idea about this matter, they don't even know why the elves were there. My master however has been secretly investigating to look for Khaos since then. The investigation revealed that the Khaos went to one of the acolytes, named Cole and he was taken by the elves"
The story and the name Cole does bring back a few memories to him. The poor senior acolyte was taken by the elf that time.
Magus Xion continued
"Hence no one suspected you, at least, not until I brought you to my master… She found traces of Khaos within you, which led to her ordering me to come here and find it. You see, Emery if anyone in the academy knew about this, you would be in huge trouble, hence the secrecy. Do you understand?!"
"Yes, Master!"
"I am not kidding Emery, the only reason the Nephilim magus was willing to give me face was due to the name of my master, that is why magus Zeus would punish his own brother. Even for me to stand here right now on your planet was only possible because of my master's name."
Emery was finally able to connect the dots of what happened, but he still didn't get why his master was hurting himself just now, however he didn't dare to guess, as the truth of what his master did just now for him settled in his mind.
Magux Xion's next word was said in a half voice.
"Listen well Emery. This is what I will say to my master and this will be our truth."
Magus Xion planned to tell his master that Emery and he managed to kill the Khaos champion and successfully took the stone, the one part of the Khaos energy. As for the Khaos Space, he will say he wasn't able to defeat the dragon guardian hence his wounds.
Finally Magus Xion took out the stone once again.
"This stone should be yours and it will be extremely useful for your cultivation progress, Emery, but I plan to bring it to my grand master Zenoia. With this, hopefully, she will buy our story and give you enough time to become the champion of Khaos."
Emery could understand the idea, but he then thought of something and asked.
"Master if she doesn't believe it, won't she still come down here herself later?"
"No, Emery, it is not that easy. A grand magus entering a lower realm would arouse too many questions. It might risk the academy finding out about it. If they connected what happened to the incident that killed many of our acolytes and magus. She couldn't risk that kind of trouble at least not right away".
At The same time Xion appeared much better already as his face has started gaining its colour. He then took out the stone once more and open it in his palm and said.
"The other way was to take this stone and use it. But if you choose so, I would not recommend you to return to the Academy, my master will definitely harm you… So what will you decide, Emery?"